


Tomorrow

by sonictrowel



Series: Long Night in the Blue House [17]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, F/M, Porn with Feelings, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-09 01:09:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10400361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sonictrowel/pseuds/sonictrowel
Summary: One of the unspoken constants of River’s marriage— at least when the Doctor knew they were married— was a shared sense of urgency about their time together.  In the first years on Darillium they had experienced the novel feeling of having an abundance of linear time, but mostly it only drove them to spend every possible minute being lost in each other, never taking a second for granted.





	

**Author's Note:**

> The only things Steven Moffat has said about their 24 years (to my knowledge) is that it was constant joy and, when asked what they did the whole time, the Doctor blushed and did not answer.
> 
> Obviously I take this seriously. While still attempting to address the fact that they are human(y) and are going to have other feelings to deal with no matter what the big guy says.
> 
> Enjoy!

 

 

One of the unspoken constants of River’s marriage— at least when the Doctor _knew_ they were married— was a shared sense of urgency about their time together.  In the first years on Darillium they had experienced the novel feeling of having an abundance of linear time, but mostly it only drove them to spend every possible minute being lost in each other, never taking a second for granted.  

River swore now she could begin to _feel_ the time ticking down, like a headache creeping on so gradually it almost escaped notice, but even so, it _ached_.  They weren’t even quite halfway there.  There was time, there was time; she kept telling herself that.  The Doctor understood.  He didn’t say it, but she could tell he felt it too.  There was nothing to do but hold each other tighter, and wring every little drop of joy out of this gift they’d been given.  To not waste a moment.  

Somehow he always knew when she needed him to make that ache in her brain subside, to make the pull of time passing disappear for a while, as only he could.  Chemistry was a woefully inadequate word for this thing that existed between them; something so _very_ tangible, but that extended far beyond touch.  The spark had always been there, but here together, as linear as they were, he just _knew_ her, completely.  And that deep, mutual knowing, between two people who had never truly been understood by anyone else, was a sacred thing.  To be loved so fiercely and worshipfully, but with no illusions.  To be seen laid bare, scarred and flawed and mostly human as she was, and have him think her perfect, just the same.  A sentiment she returned wholeheartedly.

That morning, River woke far too early before her first lecture of the semester and couldn’t get back to sleep.  Her tossing and turning woke the Doctor and he knew; he always knew.  He pulled her close and spread his hands over her stomach under her shirt, meeting her eyes in the dark, and she nodded.  Her shirt and pyjama bottoms quickly came off.  He kissed her all too briefly before he leaned over her to reach the bedside table, and held up something in front of her— one of his old bow ties.  She smiled at him and nodded again, and soon found her wrists neatly bound together by the soft silk, tied off to the barred headboard.  

“You’re thinking too much,” the Doctor whispered by her throat, before his hot mouth sucked against her skin with enough teeth and pressure that it was sure to leave a brilliant mark.

“How did you know?” she gasped, lifting her hips to press against him.

“It’s audible,” he rumbled, right in her ear, and nipped her earlobe.  She shuddered, hearing the little smile in his deep voice and feeling it like a wave passing down her body until her toes curled.

River turned her head toward his and he obliged, bringing his hands to her face and kissing her deeply, their bodies unconsciously moving in time.  She reached reflexively to hold him, but the restraints held tight, setting her pulse racing.

He finally pulled back, pressing a last lingering kiss to her lips before kissing a hot trail down her neck, across her chest, and over her breasts, torturously skirting around her nipples.  His hands gripped her waist, gentle but firm, and stopped her from squirming up against him.

 _“Sweetie,”_ she whinged softly.

“Patience, Song,” he mumbled, and opened his lips against the skin between her breasts, making her whimper in pleasure as he left another vivid bruise.  Finally he took pity on her, sliding one warm hand up to cup her breast, rolling the nipple between his fingers, while his lips closed around the other.  She moaned as he settled in and took his time with her, sucking and biting until she was writhing under him, desperately seeking some friction.  She wrapped one leg around him, angling her hips until he pressed against her just where she wanted him, and they moaned in unison.

“Bad girl,” the Doctor said, looking up at her with that mischievously scolding face she adored so very much.

“You love it,” River teased breathlessly.

“I do,” he said, his expression softening, and he lowered his head further to kiss her stomach, trailing down to her navel, while his fingers hooked around her knickers and slid them down past her knees.  She kicked them off, and then his warm hands were at her inner thighs, spreading her open.  Just when she thought the anticipation would bring her to tears, his tongue pressed flat against her.  He had her so worked up already that her nerve endings burned with the heat of his mouth.

He wasted no time teasing or trying to draw it out, caressing her directly and insistently right where she was most sensitive, working her with confident familiarity.  She cried out a mindless string of words, pleading and shaking all over.  He closed his lips over her clit, and moaned against her when she gasped his real name, the slight vibration rocking through her.  Then he sucked gently, and she came so hard she swore she saw daylight.

When the darkness of the real world crept back in, the Doctor’s head was resting just below her navel, his eyes soft as he watched her.  She smiled weakly at him, still beyond words.

“That’s one,” he said in that low, rumbling voice, and smiled wickedly back at her.

Eventually they moved from the bed to the shower, and, at length, directly back to the bed again.  By now thoroughly weak in the knees, River let the Doctor carry her, and he deposited her at the edge of the mattress without bothering to dry off, making a wet River-shaped print on the sheets.  He guided her knees up to her chest and she hooked them over his shoulders as he leaned over her, standing at the side of the bed.  He kissed her with such soft, attentive passion, but held nothing back as he began to thrust into her, hard and deep.

River knew just what he was doing— aside from fucking her absolutely senseless.  It was what they used to do before he had to take her back to her lonely cell in Stormcage: making sure she could still feel him after he left.  That she’d have a little twinge of sweet, wanting ache where he'd been inside her or see the love bites on her collarbone in the mirror, and remember this: the perfect fullness of their connection, his gasping breaths in her ear, the love that seemed to permeate every fibre of her being.  And remember that he was remembering, thinking of her and wanting her and missing her too.  _God, that man._  Her Doctor.  What a lucky girl she was.

By the time they were finally, reluctantly dressing, River was floating on air.  Her limbs were like jelly, but she felt so warm and pleasantly sore with the fresh muscle-memory of him everywhere, her nerve endings still lightly firing at random and body positively thrumming in the wonderful afterglow.  She couldn’t stop smiling, or stop grabbing the Doctor and snogging him senseless against any available surface.

“Feeling better?” he mumbled between kisses, as she pinned him to the wall of the wardrobe.

 _“Much,”_ she replied, nipping his lower lip.

“Careful,” he teased, “you could give a man an ego, carrying on like that.”

“Mm,” she hummed into his mouth, not quite able to compel herself to stop kissing him, “it’s a good thing yours can’t possibly get any bigger, then.”

“Said the actress to the bishop,” he shot back instantly.

River swatted his shoulder and devolved into giggles while he grinned wickedly at her, arms wrapping around her waist.  

“I love you,” she said when she’d caught her breath, dizzy with joy and feeling so deeply in that moment the inadequacy of those words.  But his bright blue eyes, corners crinkled up as he gazed at her like she’d hung the stars, told her he knew exactly what she meant.

He opened his mouth to answer, but she stopped him by fairly leaping onto him and shoving her tongue into it.

Eventually, they did make it out of the wardrobe.  Right after he put on a waistcoat, the cheeky bastard.

The Doctor walked them both out to the car, dismissing River’s protests that there was no need for him to freeze his arse off too.  He bent to kiss her before she closed the door, holding her face and ignoring Milly groaning from the passenger seat.  River hummed with delight and leaned into him, gripping the back of his neck.  He bopped her nose when he finally released her and she bit her lip, failing to stop herself from grinning like an idiot.

He pushed the door shut, mirroring her besotted smile.  “Have a good day at school, girls.”

“What have you got today, darling?” River asked through the open window as she started the car.

“I thought I might invite his former highness Hydro-bot round for tea,” said the Doctor.

 _“Really?”_ she asked, blinking at him.  She knew he had become a bit more sociable, but voluntarily having biscuits with Ramone without her there seemed a bit beyond the scope of possibility.

“Yeah, you know I don’t mind the bald one,” he said lightly.  “And I’ve got a thing in mind.”

“A thing?” she asked, suspicions rising.

“Yeah, it’s a thing in progress.  You’ll see when you come home, maybe.”

“Okay…” she trailed off, eyeing him with concern.

“Don’t worry, dear.  He can fly over while the wally’s napping.”

“Aaand there it is.”

“I’ll make dinner,” he said cheerfully.  “Love you.”

“Love you,” she replied, smiling again in spite of herself.

“Good luck with the thing,” Milly called to him.

He saluted as they pulled away.

“Do you know what he’s up to?” River asked.  She glanced over at Milly, but she was turned away, looking out the window.

“Um,” Milly mumbled, “sort of.”

“Sort of?”

“Yeah, alright,” she sighed, turning to face front.  “You’re going to have to hear how this happened one way or another.”

“You’re starting to worry me, Milly.”

“You know the Hazandra?”

“Obviously - one of the gemstones you’re writing your dissertation on.  Said to grant the user’s wishes.”

“So, we sort of... have it.”

“You what?!”

“Going to make for a great primary source though, hey?”

___

Milly had a lesson an hour before River’s lecture started, so she had time to get settled in her office and try to process what she’d learned in the car.  She sat back in her chair, drumming her fingers on the desk.  Why didn’t the Doctor tell her?  He wasn’t supposed to be hiding things from her anymore.  Not unless it was spoilers… maybe, for some reason, she wasn’t supposed to know, and Milly just spilled it.

Well there was no point agonising over it.  She pulled out her phone.

 

                                                                                               [had an interesting conversation with Milly in the car.]

 

[yeah?]

 

                                                                                               [about the Hazandra. namely that you have it]

 

[oh]

[all the tact of a bulldozer, that one]

 

                                                                                               [pot, meet kettle.]

                                                                                               [so, explain?]

 

[I’m sorry honey.]

[there’s some things that… I don’t know if they’re spoilers or not]

[believe me I fucking hate this]

 

                                                                                               [I thought there wasn’t anything left after this.]

 

[Oh, River]

 

Her phone rang.  She picked up the call silently.

“Hey,” came the Doctor’s voice on the line.

“Hey.  Sorry, I— this probably isn’t a great conversation to have over the phone.”

“Yeah, not like I follow you round 24/7 like a lost dog, giving you constant ample opportunity to talk to me, or anything,” he teased gently.

“Sorry,” she whispered again.

“Don’t be.”  He sighed.  “It would be so much fucking easier for everyone if I could just tell you everything, but... you know how it works.”

“I know,” she said softly.

“I don’t want you to worry.  It kills me that you’re worrying.  What we’ve got here, it’s—”

“I know, I know,” River breathed again, blinking back tears.

“I just want to make you happy, honey.”

“Oh, god, you _do,_ sweetie.  As if you couldn’t tell,” she laughed, but it came out sounding half like a sob.

He was silent for long enough that she quickly checked that the call was still connected.

“Okay,” he said, his voice breathy and intense, “listen.  I’m going to tell you something but— I can’t answer any questions about this.  I can’t tell you any more than this.  You just have to trust me, okay?”

“Okay,” she whispered, her heart racing.

“It’s all a loop with us, right?  It’s all wibbly in the middle, but we’re generally going opposite ways round a circle.”

“Right,” she whispered.

“We’re together now at opposite ends, like the stories you read.  After this is... is when it closes up.  Full circle.”

Her heart seized in her chest.

“But that doesn’t mean it’s over,” he said firmly.  “Not necessarily.  You just can’t… You have to have _hope,_ River, because I do.  But I don’t know yet and you _can’t_ know, because that’s the big spoiler.  If you know one way or another, things might change.  I promised you I wouldn’t change it, not one line.”

“So,” she muttered thickly through the lump in her throat, “I just have to be like most people, not knowing what might happen tomorrow?”

He laughed softly.  “Think you can live with that?”

“Yeah, I think so,” she said, smiling and letting out a shaky breath.

“I love you.  Want me to come over?”

“Oh, I do actually have to do a lecture, honey,” she sighed.

“And all that energy expended putting you in a good mood…”

She snickered.  “What, wasn’t it worth your trouble?”

“Oh, now, I didn’t say that.”

“Wait,” River said, scrunching her eyes closed and rubbing her throbbing head, “what does any of this have to do with the stone?”

“Oh,” the Doctor said, “not a lot.  I’m going to stick Nardole’s head back on.”

_“What?”_

 

 

 


End file.
